Mar 30, 2009 Comments
Tekkon kinkurîto (Tekkonkinkreet)
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“When the sky goes black, why do I feel so blue?”
The opening title sequence for Michael Arias’ masterpiece, “Tekkonkinkreet” (the alternative US title) surpasses the initial intention of Art of the Title in that the incredible, over-ten minute span between the start of the film and Arias’ director credit utilizes so much more than our limited conception of the possibilities of the form. There is a saturation of confusion and survival pushing the madness and grime and blind exhilaration.
The sequence is a perfect measure of the film -itself a blood and sweat tale of two street children in a multi-canopied city of hallucinatory proportion. But the run time exceeds some prudish rule we feel the need to uphold, so please consider the clip something selected and find the full sequence and the film for yourself.
From the “Making Of Tekkonkinkreet”:
“This opening scene used 500 hand-drawn illustrations and the team spent two months experimenting with the many options.”
From the director’s commentary:
“The first minute and a half was not in Taiyo Matsumoto’s original Manga, “Tekkon Kinkreet.” This [beginning] sets the tone…this shot [of the raven’s flight] is the first thing we actually executed. I thought we’d take the hardest shot first and figure how far we could take it and that would set the pace for the rest of the production.”
Arias discusses working with techno duo Plaid:
“I would send them our rushes to keep them in the loop. I haven’t heard of too many animated films where there’s been any music completed during the actual production of the film. It was one of those art school ideas of having the actual production of the music be a metaphor for something that’s happening in the story itself (the old world giving way to the new world) I was feeling like [Plaid’s music] had that in it.”
Japan | 2006 | Color | 2.35:1 | Japanese
Direct Link: 480p (QuickTime, 865×368, 42 MB, 02:27) + 720p (QuickTime, 1280×544, 62 MB, 02:27)
Commentary excerpt with director Michael Arias and screenwriter Anthony Weintraub.
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(From the Tekkonkinkreet DVD and Blu-ray)
A pinch of Plaid – The opening track, “This City,” to Plaid’s import only soundtrack to Tekkonkinkreet.
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